After
you have outlined your script and collected all the small pieces of
paper you wrote dialog notes on after having lunch with your friends,
it's time to put the meat on the bones. However, just sitting down
to write is not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes ideas hit you; sometimes
they don't. When you aren't drawing a complete blank it is important
to understand how to convert that small speck of inspiration into
a script.

Getting
in the mood, the "Flow Time Bubble"

Flow
Time is the key and essential component for writing. It is the moment
when you are able to surrender at least 90 percent of your concentration
into what you are working on. Being in Flow Time is kind of like being
in a bubble, you are only concerned with what is 3 feet in front of
you. Getting into Flow Time takes about 15 minutes of solid uninterrupted
concentration on your script. Some people are faster at getting into
it than other, but on average, expect to allow 15 minutes to get into
your Flow Time. When you are trying to establish your Flow Time, it
pays to have diarrhea of the mouth. Just let all your ideas flop and
flow out.

Some
people get into Flow Time when they are in a quite room alone with
nothing in the air to get between them and their computer. For others,
their Flow Time comes when there is a lot of sustained ambient noise,
i.e. in a bookstore or in front of a TV. Both these environments can
help establish the "Flow Time Bubble."

There
are many other factors that can effect your personal Flow Time: diet,
exercise, prayer, gimmicks (coffee, special hats, etc.), and relationships.
Whatever it is, it's important to find out what triggers a level of
concentration and focus that allows you to get into the moment of
what you are writing. There is no exact formula for Flow Time, it's
different for everybody.

Staying
in your flow time bubble

Because
it takes about 15 minutes to get into Flow Time, it is important to
take away any distractions that may burst your "Flow Time Bubble."
Turn off all ringers on phones and try to remove yourself from situations
where people may try to engage in conversation with you, or where
you may encounter yapping dogs or crying babies.

Carry
a thesaurus and have a large pitcher of water and a few snacks handy.
Be careful of having too much candy as a snack because the sugar can
greatly effect your mood and stop Flow Time.

Have
your outline handy at all times

One
way to make writing your script easier is to go through the outline
and fill in the outline scenes with dialog. Sometimes it also helps
to carry a printed copy of your outline with just the scene headings.
Writing a script can be an overwhelming process. Seeing the outline
without the dialog can help your mind put everything into perspective
a lot easier.

Software
can keep you in the bubble.

Eliminating
distraction is one key to establishing and staying in your Flow Time.
Another way to help concentrate on your story is by eliminating the
annoying task of formatting. There are many specially designed word
processor for writing scripts that help do this. These programs include
basic functions like spell checkers, but they also have lots of other
goodies that make formatting and writing a script much quicker. For
example Screen Play System's "Screen Writer 2000" has special
goodies that automatically adjust the indentation and capitalization
for character names, dialog, action and sluglines. Features like this
give your mind less interruptions for formatting and allow more Flow
Time to go towards your story.

Back up your
work

Save
your work frequently. Sometimes data can get corrupted, or maybe your
laptop could get stolen. With disk space being so cheap it pays to
save multiple versions and to back up your script to multiple locations:
to a floppy disk and the internet. Backing up your data to the Internet
is a very easy. One company, Driveway.com,
provides users 25 megabytes of free storage. That is more than enough
room for 1000 saved scripts. Best of all, the service is free.

Things Change

Remember,
as you write, you will come up with better ideas. Understand that
writing a script is a process of evolution. Probably one of the most
difficult steps of this process is finishing the first draft. Finishing
a first draft is a huge milestone. The next steps, while more tedious,
can also be a lot more fun. After you finish your first draft, you
now get to fine tune and tweak your script. Dialog will improve, scenes
will added, and weak scenes will be deleted. Hopefully, your script
will mature into something that is producible.